Vince Crosby
'Vince "Vinnie" Crosby '''is a main character in the TACITUS saga. He is the field comander of Task Force Reaper, and is in charge of leading the vigilante war against organized crime and injustice. Biography Early life and military career Vinnie was born on November 12 in the year 1989, in Tucson, Arizona. He didn't have an exactly "normal" childhood; his mother was robbed in front of him when he was at five to six years old, which scarred him for life. This premature exposure to violence led a warped mind, a mind that believed that violence is justified in certain situations (ex: warfare). He attended Columbus High School, where he met Emmett Mack and his sister Diane Mack. It is later revealed that he has two brothers-Israel and Bill Crosby-and a sister named Jeanette During his junior year of high school, Vinnie met a girl named Inda Montenegro Barrios, whom he instantly fell in love with. However, as Vinnie grew older, he began to get more and more violent-culmilating with an incident where he set a drug lord's residence on fire and robbed him of all his wealth afterwards. About two months after this incident, Inda broke up with him, much to Vinnie's shock and horror. The break-up shocked him, and he felt mentally scarred for quite a while, taking at least until his senior year to officially move on with his life. After graduating high school, Vinnie Crosby joined the West Roman Marine Corps, where he served three tours in Iraq, one tour in Afghanistan, two tours in Indonesia, and at least one tour in Syria. Unbeknownst to him, he was inserted into the same Marine unit as another future friend of his-Ellie Cohen. Eventually, Crosby was injured in an ambush/firefight during a mission to assist Iraqi fighters against the Islamic State of New Palestine, an event that also led to the deaths of several of his close friends in the Marines. Traumatized and enraged by the randomless of his loss, Vinnie spent the next few months of his military career obsessing over vengeance against the Islamic State for what they'd done. Task Force Gargoyle Later in his life, Vinnie was approached by a man known as David J. Murray, who was head of a top secret special forces unit known as Task Force Gargoyle. As a Gargoyle operative under David Murray's personal supervision, Vinnie Crosby-using the codename "Jackal"-trained long and hard, and by the year 2015, he was one of Gargoyle's most lethal operatives. Vinnie became notorious for his brazen disregard for protcol and his disturbingly high success rate during missions. While in Gargoyle, Vinnie was reunited with another operative, Ellie Cohen, codenamed Swordfish, who became one of his closest friends in the unit, having found a mutual connection due to both of them losing close friends to the enemy (Coincidentally, Ellie was part of another US Marine unit that was caught in the same ambush perpetrated by the Islamic State). Together, Vinnie and Ellie formed a nearly untouchable team, slaughtering their way through Islamic State lines in both the campaign against the Islamic State and against other enemies. Vinnie's biggest (and by far his most notorious) mission was Operation Desert Viper, a hostage rescue mission in Iran against the Islamic State, which had abducted Alexis Gould, friend of Crosby's partner Ellie. Just as before, Crosby and Cohen were nearly untouchable, inflicting large numbers of casualties against the Islamic State, although a large number of United States Marines assisting them in the operation were also killed during the initial ambush. Crosby was nearly unstoppable, killing his way through the Islamic State to reach Gould. Despite heavy casualties being inflicted on both sides, the rescue mission was a huge success and Alexis was returned to her family alive. Task Force Reaper Sometime after the September 11, 2016 Terrorist Attacks, Vinnie Crosby and Brandon Hitchcock formed Task Force Reaper, a private military company/vigilante network of crime fighters that sought to wage war against organized crime. He formed a rather long record of committing acts of vigilante justice on behalf of other people for the next several years. Saints and Sinners In the story "Saints and Sinners", Vinnie Crosby attends Winter Conference, a conference/getaway in Denver, Colorado, where he eventually comes to faith in Jesus Christ. Events of Life: A Compilation Vinnie is featured in Life: A Compilation. Operation Salem Vince Crosby also participated in a hostage rescue mission in Europe, codenamed Operation Salem. He assisted Derek Westbrook, a close friend of his and member of the international counterterrorism unit TACITUS in rescuing human traffickers from New Dawn terrorists and the Islamic State of New Palestine. He had a prominent role in helping Derek slay Ozakan Usak, an associate of New Dawn who had a hand in the human trafficking operations in Turkey. Personal life Current philosophy Up until 2017, Vince was an agnostic, but he wasn't not your typical agnostic. He believed that it is possible that some higher power or some holy eternal deity really does exist-he just does not believe the Bible, the Qu'ran, or any holy text from any religion is enough to support the existence of either deity. Simply put, there is a high possibility that ''any ''of the gods from any of the major religions of the world could be the one true God-the holy texts of the world just don't give out enough information to confirm such a claim (similar to Derek Westbrook and Nikolai Kalinin). However, as time went on, thanks to being introduced to Jesus through the Campus Crusader Underdogs and his history with the Christian Bible, he had come to what he calls "50-50 faith": part of him is convinced that the Bible could be telling the truth and Jesus may be the only way, the truth and the life, and the only way to God after all (John 14:6), and part of him believes in the possibility that Christianity could be wrong and the Bible could be telling people a load of nonsense. He is convinced that Jesus is indicating that to be saved, one must have an "ungodly" amount of faith, a level of faith that is humanly impossible to attain. He gradually abandoned this view as his faith in Jesus Christ grew. He also has a rather interesting philosophy concerning people, one that is best described as the Philosophy of "Opposite World"-in Vince's eyes, the people with the most power, the most wealth, and the ones who horde physical possessions are actually weak and insecure, and that they use their power and wealth and material possessioins as a smokescreen to hide their insecurities and therefore lie about themselves. The ones that are weak-they are actually the strongest because in Vince's eyes, they have the potential of doing great things despite their so-called "weakness"; they just haven't unlocked it yet. This explains why Vinnie considers insults that seek to dehumanize and degrade other people are, to him, actually empowering, as evidenced by his experience confronting bullies and abusive people. He still struggles with guilt, however. Even after he became a Christian, Vince's past sins continued to haunt him at various points in his life. As his faith grew, Vince, much like Derek Westbrook, became a bold believer, sharing his faith with others whenever he could. He is scathing of the Oneness Pentacostal Movement, calling it a "fake Christian rip-off" and "Phariseeism in disguise." He also believes in "once saved, always saved," and that people who use Bible passages like Hebrews 10:26 and Hebrews 6:4-6 to defend the idea that one can lose their salvation are from Satan. He also believes such people who propagate such ideas are "wolves in sheep's clothing" and trap people into the bondage of Phariseeism (Legalism). Skills and abilities Linguistics Vinnie is a polyglot, able to speak multiple languages, due to a gene he inherited from his mother, who was also a polyglot. He can fluently speak French, Russian, Mandarin Chinese (not Cantonese), German, Arabic, and to some extent, even Latin. Powers *Speed and agility-Vinnie can easily outmaneuver most people because of his athletic build. *Stamina-Vinnie can run long distances for a short period of time. *Agility-He is not exactly an expert at acrobatics, but he does have fast reflexes and possesses acrobatic skills that allow him to avoid getting hit by gunfire. Abilities *Hand-to-hand combat: Vinnie knows a variety of martial arts, including (but not limited to) Pankration , Krav Maga , the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (due to his time in the United States Marines), Vale Tudo , and Nuba Fighting (during his time in Sudan) *Observation skills: Vinnie is quite good at observing details about people, often to the point where he can know how someone is feeling before being told about their emotions. *Faster reflexes-Vinnie can sense someone attempting to attack him before any blows can actually land on him during a fight. Weapons and equipment ''TBA Notable achievements *2013-As a United States Marine, Vince Crosby is in Fallujah, hunting down a prominent member of the Islamic State of New Palestine, when he falls into an ambush by said militants. Around half of his men die and Vince and his surviving teammates are injured, but they are saved by mysterious Turkish assassins. *2014-Vinnie murders an evil Indian Hindu priest who plotted to force a close friend and former pen pal of Vinnie's into marrying a man she didn't like. *2014-Vinnie protects a young Muslim girl from the threat of being executed by her fundamentalist family after it is discovered that she was having an unlawful affair with an "infidel" by brutally slaughtering her whole family. *2015-Vinnie investigates a series of murders by a serial killer known as the Bronx Butcher. After locating the Bronx Butcher at a steam junction, prepping the murder of a young woman, Crosby stabs the Butcher to death. *2015-Vince joins Task Force Gargoyle *2015-Vinnie participates in Operation Desert Viper *Early 2016-Vinnie and Brandon form Task Force Reaper; his official mission with the organization is the assassination of the nephew of a Saudi prince who is discovered to be funding the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. *Early 2016-Vince's second official mission with Task Force Reaper begins with Operation Neptune *Mid 2016-Vinnie and Derek Westbrook find and rescue one of Derek's old friends, a young woman named Amber Young. *Mid 2016-Vince participates in Operation Blowtorch *Late 2016-Vince teams up with French officer Laurette Sorel to protect a depressed and suicidal young woman from assassins in New York City. *2017-Participation in the February 2018 Religious Riots; in response to a Oneness Pentacostal Street Preacher spreading Oneness Pentacostalism at the St. Louis University of Missouri and the surrounding vicinity, Vince Crosby, Nikolai Kalinin, Emmett Mack, and various others gather up a crowd of people and try to run him out of the campus. The situation suddenly escalates into a full-blown riot when the street preacher persists in his preaching. *December, 2017-January, 2018= Vinnie attends CCU Winter Conference and converts to Christianity (though he considers himself non-demoninational) *2018-February 2018 Religious Riots; in response to a Oneness Pentacostal Street Preacher spreading Christianity at the St. Louis University of Missouri and the surrounding vicinity, Ellie Cohen, Nikolai Kalinin, Emmett Mack, Vince Crosby, Derek Westbrook, and various other people gathered up a crowd of people and spoke against Oneness Pentacostalism. The situation suddenly escalated into a full-blown riot, and eventually a fistfight, when the street preacher persisted in his preaching, and it got so bad that police had to get involved. Thankfully, nobody was severely injured. Quotes Random exclamations *"Are you stupid?" *"Sweet Jesus!" *"Just a scratch." *"You've got to be kidding me!" *"These people!" *"Careful..." *"Son of a bitch!" *"SHIT!" Category:Characters